Kyle and Jackie O Five Million $ KIIS FM Deal + VIDEOS

Radio duo Kyle and Jackie O will now both earn up to five million dollars each year, for the next five years.

This comes after the tighter than ever business powerhouse duo signed a new contract with ARN.

“There was never a doubt in my mind KIIS was our home for the long haul, because I made it!” Kyle Sandilands said in a statement released overnight.

In this article, according to industry sources, the KIIS FM breakfast duo could earn up to $25 million each by the end of the contract, which is dependant on ratings.

The article adds that although Kyle and Jackie O negotiated their salaries separately, it’s understood they’re being paid an equal amount.

With strong rumours earlier this year that the popular business couple were approached by 2Day FM - the station they walked out on in 2013 after more than ten years with them - but Kyle has made it clear on numerous occasions on radio, at his new radio home, that he’d never return to his old radio station.

Kyle and Jackie O's show is the number one FM breakfast show with a 10.4 per cent audience share.

Here are some memorable radio moments so far at KIIS:

And their Mardi Gras promo video:

Facebook Buys WhatsApp for $19 Billion

Yes. You read the headline right.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has just announced that Facebook has bought the mobile messaging services for a lazy US$19 billion.

Here is the news Mark posted - naturally, via a status update on Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg

I’m excited to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire WhatsApp and that their entire team will be joining us at Facebook.

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. We do this by building services that help people share any type of content with any group of people they want. WhatsApp will help us do this by continuing to develop a service that people around the world love to use every day.

WhatsApp is a simple, fast and reliable mobile messaging service that is used by over 450 million people on every major mobile platform. More than 1 million people sign up for WhatsApp every day and it is on its way to connecting one billion people. More and more people rely on WhatsApp to communicate with all of their contacts every day.

WhatsApp will continue to operate independently within Facebook. The product roadmap will remain unchanged and the team is going to stay in Mountain View. Over the next few years, we're going to work hard to help WhatsApp grow and connect the whole world. We also expect that WhatsApp will add to our efforts forInternet.org, our partnership to make basic internet services affordable for everyone.

WhatsApp will complement our existing chat and messaging services to provide new tools for our community. Facebook Messenger is widely used for chatting with your Facebook friends, and WhatsApp for communicating with all of your contacts and small groups of people. Since WhatsApp and Messenger serve such different and important uses, we will continue investing in both and making them each great products for everyone.

WhatsApp had every option in the world, so I’m thrilled that they chose to work with us. I’m looking forward to what Facebook and WhatsApp can do together, and to developing great new mobile services that give people even more options for connecting.

I've also known Jan for a long time, and I know that we both share the vision of making the world more open and connected. I'm particularly happy that Jan has agreed to join the Facebook board and partner with me to shape Facebook's future as well as WhatsApp's.

Jan and the WhatsApp team have done some amazing work to connect almost half a billion people. I can’t wait for them to join Facebook and help us connect the rest of the world.

Typhoon Haiyan Appeal Red Cross Australia

'Typhoon Haiyan' is one of the most powerful on record, one of the world's worst ever natural disasters. To watch the devastation, to see displaced kids, tears streaming down their faces, filled with fear is truly devastating.

And you can help donate money to help these people right NOW.

Click here for the direct Red Cross link.

It has destroyed thousands of homes as it tracked across central Philippines before going on to strike Vietnam.

Says the Red Cross Australia website:

"Winds of more than 300km/h, flash flooding and landslides have left families without shelter, food and water. Thousands of people are feared dead in the Philippines.

For thousands of people who were left homeless by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in the Philippines last month, the typhoon has intensified the humanitarian emergency.

When the super typhoon hit over the weekend, around 270,000 people on the central island of Bohol were still living in makeshift shelters or under tarpaulins after their homes had been destroyed by the earthquake.

Red Cross staff and volunteers are on the ground in the disaster-affected communities, helping people evacuate and providing emergency first aid and relief supplies, such as food, water and shelter.

An Australian Red Cross logistics expert headed to the hardest hit regions immediately to help coordinate the relief effort, and more disaster management experts are on standby.

Assessment of the damage and destruction has begun, search and rescue teams are in the field, and emergency supplies are being distributed to those in the worst hit areas. A disaster of this magnitude will require an international response.

Funds raised through this appeal will be used to:

• Provide emergency relief, rehabilitation and recovery assistance to communities affected by Typhoon Haiyan (including the Philippines and Vietnam)
• Support water and sanitation, shelter and health initiatives in affected areas
• Send specialist aid workers to assist in initial assessments, relief, recovery and longer term disaster management operations
• Support Red Cross longer term programs and the work of our Red Cross Red Crescent partners in the affected areas."

Help these people rebuild their lives now. EVERY dollar counts. I am donating this second.

The Red Cross Australia logo says it all, really: "The Power Of Humanity." We seriously can't just sit there and do nothing.

Lisa Ho Brand To Close

In sad Australian fashion news just in today, the Lisa Ho fashion brand is set to close. For good.

The Australian has reported that administrators have overseen debts of nearly $11 million run up by the brand, and were unable to finalise the sale of the company.

“Discussions are continuing with a number of interested parties in relation to the purchase of intellectual property, stock and other assets of the Lisa Ho Group,” the administrators said in a statement, before adding they would now focus on closing the remaining Lisa Ho stores.

The brand announced an immediate final sale on current season designs, classic evening wear, and bridal dresses at Lisa Ho stores in the Strand Arcade and at David Jones Elizabeth Street in Sydney, at Chadstone and at David Jones Bourke Street in Melbourne, in the Wintergarden in Brisbane and at their site www.lisaho.com.

A sad day for the enduring, fashion forward brand.

UPDATED: the brand is selling all its clothes online and instore at up to 80% off.

Click here to shop online.

Here are some looks sported by Lisa Ho celebrity devotees:

“The Queen of Versailles” DVD review + reader giveaway - sponsored post

Right from the get-go, this oddly engaging documentary had me hooked.

I was disturbed, moved, a little disgusted, surprisingly connected to and yet simultaneously disenchanted by the whole sorry catastrophe. And yet, I cannot stop recommending it; I want everyone I know to see it.

The documentary film is titled ‘The Queen of Versailles’, a 2012 American-made mini masterpiece by Lauren Greenfield; a confronting reflection of our modern times of failed business ventures, shattered dreams, over-financing and over-extending. Where marriages are on the brink, children suffer greatly, and living beyond your means takes on a whole new meaning. [Here is the DVD cover]:

The doco centres around David Siegel and his wife Jackie [and their eight kids], owners of Westgate Resorts, one of the largest time-share corporations in the US… who are also building the largest [larger than the White House! It’s a 90,000 square foot palace, based on Versailles in France] and most expensive single-family home in the USA. Meanwhile, they face financial crisis of gargantuan proportions, as the US economy rapidly declines, taking the over-extenders down with them.

The documentary won the US Directing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize from the Brisbane International Film Festival, a Best Director Award from the RiverRun Film Festival, and the Special Jury Documentary Feature prize from the deadCenter Film Festival. ‘The Queen of Versailles’ was also nominated for Best Documentary Film, 2012, by the International Documentary Association.

Watching the curious world of the Siegels is like watching a crazy mash-up of the moneyed-up vulgarity you’ll witness on any of the ‘Real Housewives’ franchise spin-offs, but the irony in so many scenes is not lost: Papa Siegel losing his mind over wasting electricity in their current home, while a cool 30 mil plus is required to help hoist them out of the crazy-deep debt they are in, for example.

“They were giving me cheap money and I was using it,” he states plainly.

At the conclusion of the doco, David says: “We need to live within our means. Don’t spend money that we don’t have. Don’t spend money that we think we’re going to eventually have. Spend what we do have. You know, get back to reality.” Amen to that.

Josie’s Juice has 20 copies of the DVD to give away. And I would urge you to enter to watch one of the most accurate portrayals of greed-gone-mad of our time.

Watch the trailer below:



‘The Queen of Versailles’ is available on DVD (RRP $24.95) and digital download from 17 April 2013.

All you need to do to enter the comp to win a copy of the DVD is:

- Click ‘like’ on the Josie’s Juice Facebook page
- Share this link on your Facebook wall

- Tell me in as few or as many words as you like why winning this DVD appeals to you

- Email me at josiegags@optusnet.com.au so I have your details on hand in the event you’re a winner

“This is kind of like a reverse of a ‘rags to riches’ story. This is almost like a ‘riches to rags’ story,” says David, with a laugh. Except it’s no laughing matter. And he and his family know it. What will happen to their beloved palace-in-progress? Will they learn huge life lessons along the way? Watch the must-see DVD to see what happens next.

Kmart: Guy Russo interview - "We've served 20 million more people in last 3 years."

I like a retail MD that says what we're thinking: that most Aussie mums (86.4%, in fact) are under financial pressure and have had to reassess spending.


That's what MD of Kmart Guy Russo [above] acknowledges, and this figure has climbed enormously since similar Roy Morgan Research in July 2011, where 78.7% of mums reported being under financial pressure.


In fact, according to this poll, 85.5% of mums say they have to sacrifice spending on themselves to keep up with necessities, and 57.1% say increases in prices of electricity, fuel and other household costs have impacted enormously on the family budget.


Mums are cutting down on beauty products, clothes for themselves and home décor in favour of spending what they have on their kids and food (nooo! But in all honesty, yes... this happens in my house, too).


Mr Russo says Kmart has reduced the prices of many products across the store by around 30% over the last eight months and has just dropped prices again on another 330 products, demonstrating Kmart’s commitment to keeping prices as low as possible for Australian consumers.


Mums have said they want a retailer to understand they are doing it tough – 72% of mums think that it is important that retailers they shop with regularly understand the increasing financial pressures that their family budget faces.  69.9% of mums think it is very important to shop with a retailer who understands and supports them in difficult times.

Guy Russo took some time for an interview with Josie's Juice to answer some questions: 


"About a year ago, we decided that instead of complaining about what was happening with pricing on ‘the outside’, we decided to look at ourselves internally. What we know is that Australians are paying too much at retail level, and the retailer should be part of the solution here, by finding ways to reduce their prices at the cash registers.


"So I have actually turned this on its head by saying, well instead of blaming this on the economy or outside factors, what is it we can do to remove costs in doing business, and then drop our prices. Because if we drop our prices – which we have done significantly since we last met you at the Broadway store opening [late 2011], we end up getting more value for our customers, which is crucial when its time for them to have to tighten their belts and really save money.


"My starting point is forgetting how bad the econony is, and just remembering that there is stuff that mum needs and dad needs, and the kids need; we’ve got to find ways to keep finding ridiculous, gob-smacking prices and deliver them to people. Like $8 jeans, and cups and saucers for $1, and girls and boys t-shirts for $4.


"Everyone thought, it can’t be done! The good news is: we’ve done it.


"And, we’ve dropped our prices by 30 per cent since last year – and that’s every day. We don’t discounts anymore, we just drop prices.


"And now we are dropping prices even more in next few weeks.


"What l've learned is that I think every other retailer is overcharging, and now I get it. We had the wrong model for four years.


"And in the last two or three years - by putting price as king - we’ve served about 20 million more people."


But: how on earth is Kmart still staying so profitable, I ask Guy.


"It’s a volume game in the end. The formula is simple, but it’s very difficult to execute, I think. The formula is that you buy direct - that’s the most important thing. If you have many middle men you’re paying every one of the those middle people before the product even gets to your back door.

"So, step one is buy direct. We always bought from overseas, which meant we always had four or so people between us and the factory. The second thing is, buy volume. And what I said to the buyers is, instead of having 50 styles of jeans, which denim retailers proudly show off, just bring those 50 styles to 10, and then back them in volume.


"And so when you buy volume of a few items, you then can buy them at a lower cost because you’re dealing wih the supplier direct, and then sell at the lowest price. And that's the last part of the formula. 

"And what retailers do: they don’t sell at the lowest price because they want to do this things called 'sales', which I am dead against. Sales mean mum comes in at '30% off this weekend', and those sales are forcing the consumer to buy when the retailer wants the customer to buy, versus selling them at a low price 365 days of the year.

"David Jones and Myer could do the same thing with their products instead of trying to trick mum into a mid season sale, and soon as the mid season is over - which who knows when that is, as there seems to be one of those sales every three weeks - they then bump the price up twice.

"Not only are Australian retailers charging too much, I think that model is so out of date, and if you listen to the results - which they publish every quaerter or every month - they’re all complaining about margins and sales being down. The problem is internal not external; they’re running off an old model that is based on tricking comsumers on when and what to buy. 

"Whereas we take the simple approach of low prices every day of the year. Our challenge is to find the right products because we've got to make sure you have what the consumer wants. We pick the everyday items, things that people need every single day.

So, what’s next for Kmart?

"Continuing to find lower prices for consumers. Mum is so selfless – she feels the financial frustrations and pressures, and we know that.

"I don’t want my team to ever let go of finding ways to help families save money. This price journey for me is very important. As is the quality, and the ethical sourcing, which I very a big thing right now. 

"Consumers want to know that when we're sourcing from overseas we're buying products from overseas that are using reputable labour. And the factories are treating their staff right.

"Price, quality, and ethical sourcing are a must for me.

"If I found any factory doing something that was not acceptable to global standards, I would stop dealing with them immediately.

Below are some of the bargains you can nab at Kmart. 

And here are some of the more recent price changes:


- an entire men’s outfit for $22 (was $27)
- women’s jeans $8.50 ($10)
- eight-piece non-stick Hudson cookware $29 (was $39)
- women’s plus tees $7 (was $10)
- two kids singlets $4 (was $5)
- Five litre stainless steel slow cooker $19 (was $25). 


For more, see: http://www.kmart.com.au/ or go visit your local Kmart store!


And check out this page FULL of lower prices: http://www.kmart.com.au/LowerPricedProducts.aspx